After two box office debacles - "Kyun! Ho Gaya Na..." and "Nanhe Jaisalmer" - director Sameer Karnik returns with "Heroes". Releasing Friday, the multi-starrer is based loosely on the cult classic "The Motorcycles Diaries".

While his directorial debut "Kyun! Ho Gaya Na..." was an unconventional love story starring Aishwarya Rai and Vivek Oberoi, his second film "Nanhe Jaisalmer" was about an unusual friendship between a film star and a Rajasthani boy. But both the films bombed. Now Karnic turns to patriotism to win over audiences.

The film has an army background, but Karnik says it is just symbolic and is basically about individuals.

"The movie doesn't focus on war like `Border' or `LOC Kargil', " he was quoted as saying.

Karnik has co-written "Heroes" with Aseem Arora. The film is about a road trip of two guys - Sohail Khan and Vatsal Seth.

"They travel 1, 000 miles to meet their destiny. The film shows that all of us have a hero inside us. It is only experience that makes us realise it, " said Karnik.

The film revolves around Sammy (Sohail Khan) and Ali (Vatsal Seth), who are friends and do everything together. In short, they are highly dependent on each other for everything.

While Sammy is high-spirited and has a knack of finding humour in the weirdest of situations, Ali is quieter and more mature. When the two friends travel 1, 000 miles to deliver three letters as a part of their film school assignment, little do they know that the journey will give them a new meaning of life.

Sammy and Ali travel via road from Delhi to Chandigarh and then from Manali to Ladakh. During their journey, they meet Balkar Singh (Salman Khan) and his wife Kuljeet Kaur (Preity Zinta).

A man of few words, Balkar has pledged his life for his country. Like most men, Balkar has beautiful dreams for his family, but he knows he might not be able to fulfil them.

His wife Kuljeet takes pride in being an army man's wife and is happy that her son wants to walk the same path as his father. Kuljeet is a loving wife, a caring mother, a single daughter and the best daughter-in-law anyone could ask for. Sacrifice comes naturally to Kuljeet and so does hard work.

Then they meet the two brothers - Vikram (Sunny Deol) and Dhananjay Shergill (Bobby Deol).

Dhananjay is a charming and affectionate guy, but just like a child he is constantly trying to prove that he is better than his brother Vikram. Yet, when needed, that child takes a backseat to let the soldier in him take charge.

Th duo then meet Dr. Naqvi (Mithun Chakraborty), whose life is meaningless without his son Sahil (Dino Morea), an army man.

The chance meeting with these people have a life-changing impact on these two youngsters' lives.

The film earlier titled "Mera Bharat Mahan" will see Salman for the first time in a Sikh get-up. The actor grew his beard for three weeks before the filming to give an authentic Sikh look.

And Preity reportedly took a refresher course in acting from Anupam Kher's acting school to brush up her skills for a deglamorised role of a timid wife.

The film has been shot in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.